


Doubt Comes In

by Bi_panic



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Has Issues, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27014539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bi_panic/pseuds/Bi_panic
Summary: When a curse makes its way around the castle Rapunzel and her friends have to find a way to best their doubts and insecurities. Each one of them will come face to face with their guilt and will have to find a way to move past it.But what happens when one of them can't?
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 26
Kudos: 73





	1. Rapunzel

**Author's Note:**

> This is a side-project I'm working on while I try to get motivation for my other story (which I promise I will update eventually I’m so sorry). 
> 
> It's kind of a challenge for me as well, to try and go outside my writing style and try something new so let me know how it turns out in your guys' opinions! I welcome and encourage constructive criticism because let's face it everyone needs some in their life lol.

_The castle halls buzzed with activity. Castle staff and nobles flitted in and out of the rooms, walking with purpose in their minds. Their thoughts were all similar; focused on the tasks at hand and nothing more. The people moved past one another in an orderly flow, something akin to a current or tide._

_This energy frustrated the being. Everyone who passed below it only had minimal guilt levels, all too stable, too sure of themselves, too secure. This would simply not do. How can one feed if there is nothing to feed upon? Of course, there was always the occasional guilt but it wouldn't be enough to last even an hour. These humans were too in control for the creature to even take advantage. It was becoming more and more irritated. How is it that no matter where the being went, there was not a single doubtful mind? What kind of kingdom is this? No matter, it would find something._

_A scent caught the creature's mind, leading it forward. It wasn't nearly enough to sustain it for long but one must make do. As it flew through the walls, passing maids without a second thought, a grin of sorts made its way onto its face. Whatever that scent was would be a definite improvement from the pitiful humans before. Finally, when the scent was as strong as a weak link could give, it arrived in a large room. The area was expansive and intricately decorated, the three seats at the very back clearly the centerpiece of it all. However, the decor was not what the creature was immediately drawn towards. It was the man standing in from of three other wearing elegant regalia, the one that emitted the scent. The being's grin widened as it dove towards the human._

_Once it had made its way into the man's mind, it took a deep breath and smiled. Oh, how it missed this feeling._

**Rapunzel**

Rapunzel walked through the hall silently, her bare feet not making a sound. Even though she didn't speak a word to any passing staff or to Pascal resting on her shoulder, her mind did not share the quiet space the walkway did. Thoughts and questions flew around in the forefront of her mind. Her dad had reportedly collapsed in the throne room and became almost unresponsive when he got back up. None of the people who had been in the room had any idea what happened, not helping her or her mom's worries. By the time Rapunzel had been informed though, her mom had already taken care of the situation. Even with this, she was still determined to figure out what happened and help to the best of her abilities. 

When she made it to her parent's room, she didn't get the chance to open the door before her mother came walking out of it. 

"Oh, hello Rapunzel. I'm assuming you heard?"

She nodded and peeked past her shoulder. "Is Dad ok?"

"He is. The doctor isn't sure what happened but he's doing much better now."

"Good, can I go say hi?"

"Well he's asleep right now, but I'll send for you when he wakes up ok?"

That was all Rapunzel needed to hear. Nodding again, she quickly hugged her mom before starting the walk back to her room. Her mom's reassurances definitely helped settle the anxious questions she had but it didn't completely stop her from worrying. Now seeing as she had little to no actual information on what happened, it was hard for Rapunzel to be completely calmed. There were a lot of aspects that were confusing and concerning. For one, her dad might not actually be better and could pass out again, which was something she _definitely_ did not want. On the other hand, if it was a sickness it could spread throughout the castle and get even more people sick/hurt. Hopefully, her mom was right and everything was ok but there was still the nagging doubt that it wasn't. 

Pascal squeaked from her shoulder and patted her cheek. She smiled and nuzzled against him, grateful for the comfort. 

"It's ok Pascal. I'm sure everything will work itself out." Sighing, Rapunzel picked up her pace and smiled slightly, "In the meantime, I have a good idea on how we can pass the time. There was still some room on the rafters right?" 

The chameleon smiled and nodded. It was settled, time to paint the ceiling again. 

-At Rapunzel's room-

They were right, the rafters were not painted on. Rapunzel quickly gathered all of her painting supplies together and hopped onto the pulley system set up. It was moments like these she wished her hair was long again, not much she could do with the 4 inches she did have. It was fine though, from the random ropes she used and the large pulley system hung up, painting wasn't too hard. 

"Ok Pascal, I was thinking of doing that new field that Cataline and Kiera found. What do you think?" 

He smiled and nodded before jumping onto the box next to her. Every now and then he would pass her a new paintbrush but he mostly just watched. Rapunzel's painting process was a mixture of calming and slightly chaotic. When she began, it was usually filled with collected strokes and calculated color schemes but as time passed and she got more emersed into it, well that's when it started to get more chaotic. The painting started to become more colorful and full of emotion as if one could tell exactly what she was thinking of as she painted. Her emotions poured onto the space with each moment that passed. Every artist had their quirks, Rapunzel's was the sheer effort put into each and every stroke. It seemed like everything she did had a purpose. 

Now that's all that can be gathered from an outsider's point of view. From the artist herself, it was much less profound and poetic. Her painting process to her was just a way of relaxing and sometimes letting herself get lost in the art and not focus on anything that could be bothering her. Right now, it was the latter. 

After a solid two hours, the painting was complete. She smiled and swung away from the new addition, looking it over to make sure everything was done. Once she decided it was, Rapunzel lowered herself and started putting the painting supplies away. 

"Do you think we should check on Dad now?" Pascal shrugged and climbed back onto her shoulder. "I think we should."

She set the rest of the brushes down and walked towards her bedroom door, intending to leave. That did not happen though, as the second she grabbed the door handle, a sharp pain shot through her head. At first, she simply winced and tried to push it aside, only for the pain to swiftly increase and move through her body. Groaning, Rapunzel gripped her hair and leaned against the door. Every part of her felt like it was being torn inside out, the worst of it in her head. Eventually standing became too difficult of a task so she fell to her knees and curled into herself. Pascal pushed her cheek and whined trying to distract her but it failed. The pain seemed to increase every second, showing no sign of letting up.

Right as Rapunzel felt herself begin to blackout the pain vanished. The feeling of fire pouring into her head disappeared, as well as the horrible tearing she felt in her limbs. Everything just dissolved within a moment. She sat against the door and tried to level out her breathing. It took a few seconds for her to stand again, Pascal doing his best to comfort her throughout the process. When she was back to leaning on the door, Rapunzel sighed and looked around.

"I...should probably see the doctor." 

For the second time in the last few minutes, she grabbed the door handle and began to open the door, only to be interrupted. 

"Hey there Raps." The voice made Rapunzel jump. She turned around to see who it was, though the voice was painfully familiar. 

"Cassandra? W-what? You're..." 

Her voice trailed off as she got a good look at her "friend". The sight almost made her flinch but she refrained. The Cassandra standing in front of her was not the same woman as the one she wished farewell to months ago. No, this one was in the same armor her friend wore for a year, the bright blue hair present as well. Her eyes, however, were completely black. Had her friend not been wearing the moonstone armor, her eyes would be enough for Rapunzel to be concerned. 

Before she got the chance to question what she was doing here and why she looked that way, "Cassandra" walked towards her. 

"What am I, princess? You surprised I'm still here?"

She opened her mouth to reply but no words came out. As Rapunzel tried to force out a response, a realization dawned on her. it was a pretty obvious one but a realization none the less. 

Shaking her head, she glared at the person in front of her. "You're not the Cassandra I know. What are you?"

"The same one you ditched and crippled." The armor on "Cassandra's" right hand crumbled away to reveal her burned hand. The sight was eerily similar to the world Rapunzel was trapped in at the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow, not something she wanted to remember at the moment. 

"Got anything to say? Or would you rather ignore what I said, again?" 

"Answer my question first. What are you?"

"Nice deflection there your highness." The thing walked towards her, stopping a foot away and leaning forward, grinning. "You tend to do that hm?"

Her glare remained as she met the black eyes staring her down. This had to be a hallucination, what set it off was still lost on the princess. 

"Why are you here?" It only widened its grin and stepped away. "Answer me."

"Oh I just thought you could use a reminder of the friends you disappointed and hurt. Couldn't let you forgetting could we?"

This time Rapunzel decided to stay silent. Guilt started to creep into her mind, though she had no idea where it came from. The glare fell from her face to be replaced by a look of sorrow. The thing in front of her words repeated in her head no matter how much she tried to dismiss them and retort. Unwanted memories flooded her mind as she looked down. She didn't know why she felt guilty, or why she kept thinking over the words. 

"What's wrong Rapunzel? Feeling **guilty**?" 

She looked up and opened her mouth again. "I...yes." Her voice came out as a whisper. 

The other Cassandra simply laughed and leaned against the wall closest to it. 

"Can't say I'm surprised Raps. I mean after all who wouldn't feel guilty after remembering all of the times you tossed your friends aside for your own benefit. You didn't expect me to forget being dismissed my whole life, did you? And I'm sure you don't expect me to _forgive_ you after it all. You can't honestly think..."

Rapunzel tried to block out the voice but even when she covered her ears, it could still be heard. Only this time, the words were coming from inside her head, echoing around with each syllable. The voices surrounding her got louder with each second as they all echoed the same speech. " _Your fault. You did this to us."_ It filled her mind with the same pain from before. She gave up trying to block out the voices and turned to grabbing her dress in an attempt to push past the words and pain. The thing had moved forward at some point and was now crouched down to where Rapunzel was sitting. A few tears slipped onto her face as she struggled to look up. 

Before she got the chance to curl into a ball and push away the pain invading her head, the door bumped against her back. All of the voices and pain receded to a soft whisper, letting Rapunzel gasp and let her body relax. The thing in front of her had disappeared as well though that was not her main concern at the moment. The door shifted again so she crawled forward and sat against the leg of a table, trying to muster up the strength to talk. 

"Sunshine? Can I come in?" She sighed with relief and laughed slightly at Eugene's voice. Could he have better timing?

"Yeah! Come in." 

The door creaked open as her fiance slipped in and looked around in search of her. When his eyes eventually found hers she smiled and waved at him. Tears were still spilling from her eyes so she quickly wiped them away. Eugene pulled her hands away softly and looked at her with concern. 

"What happened?"

"I don't know..." The conversation she had with the mock Cassandra was still prominent in her mind but it seemed nearly impossible to convey that in a sentence. Even more impossible was the thought of actually explaining it all to Eugene. Still, she had to try. 

"I was trying to see my dad but then-then I got this headache and it wouldn't go away. But then I...I tried to I mean there was this..."

Rapunzel hiccuped and wiped her eyes again. It seemed a lot harder to explain the events prior than she thought it would be. She curled into herself slightly and stared at the ground. After calming herself down, she looked back up at her fiance. He offered a small smile before wordlessly helping her stand. It took a moment for her to be able to walk but Eugene's help made it easier. They made it over to her bed and sat down, his arm still around her shoulders. 

"Thank you." 

"Of course. Do you want to talk about it?" She nodded and leaned into his side.

Unsurprisingly, he wasn't that shocked by everything she described and recounted. Fighting a demon does that to a person. It was hard for Rapunzel to pinpoint details as she talked, everything that happened was more or less a blur for her. The only thing that was set in stone in her mind was the words that had been repeating during that time. As she talked, she tried to piece together what started all of it. There was no immediate explanation for why she was thrown into a guilt and pain-filled hallucination, which didn't make it any easier to explain it all to her fiance. Of course, that didn't stop him from pulling her closer when she finished talking. 

"Well I don't know what started that but I'm sure we'll figure it out, together ok?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "Ok."

"Are you up for stealing some lunch or do you need a minute?"

"Lunch sounds good." They stood up together and left the room. Rapunzel glanced back. Though the woman she was looking for wasn't there, she felt the voices slowly disappear completely leaving her mind in blissful silence. Whatever happened, they would figure it out.


	2. Eugene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am writing as fast as I possibly can before my writer's block strikes again lol. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy the Eugene angst and New Dream moments :)

_The girl had recovered much faster than the being thought she would. It had barely gotten any source of substance from her guilt; it wasn't even enough to last the rest of the day. She had so much potential! The amount of guilt that girl had would have been enough to fuel it for so much longer but no. That man had to come in and stop the careful situation it had crafted. Humans were complicated creatures but when one digs a little deeper, they were much simpler than they appear. Every human had some sense of guilt even the cruelest of the bunch still had remorse for one thing or another. It just happened to be the creature's job to find it._

_And right now, that was getting much more difficult. Originally it had gone back to the grueling process of passing from mind to mind to find someone with an efficient supply of guilt but after some time the being had realized its mistake. How could it have passed by its next victim? While it, once again, wasn't the best choice, the next one would do. Besides, when the creature got closer to the man, it saw the missed amounts hidden deep inside. Humans think they're good at hiding emotions but they're not. They are much too expressive to adequately bury emotions._

_Maybe the being judged this man too soon. As long as all goes according to plan, which it will, this human should keep it going until the next victim. Guilt may be scarce within the common folk, but that was simply not true for these nobles. The higher the risk in a decision, the more likely they are to regret it later. That was just a universal truth, humans often define themselves by the mistakes they make. Which is a very good thing for the creature._

_Ignoring the girl from earlier on who walked to his left, it flew into the man's mind. This would do fine for the time being._

**Eugene**

Their lunch date had definitely helped Rapunzel. There were still a lot of questions that Eugene wanted to ask her but it still didn't seem like the right time. While his fiancee seemed to be feeling better, he could tell she was still shaken up about what happened. Her explanation had more or less helped him get a clear understanding of what happened to her though it wasn't enough for Eugene to find a solution or cause of it all. What was most concerning, except for the well being of his girlfriend of course, was that what she told him was pretty similar to what happened to the King just much more extreme. In fact, it was very similar to the recountings he had heard from other guards of people simply collapsing in pain and then reportedly seeing a hallucination. The fact that Rapunzel was now one of the people to share that experience made it crucial to find a solution to all of this. 

Even though he was worried, Eugene didn't share his thoughts with his fiancee. She didn't seem in the right mindset to deal with this issue. So he distracted her instead. After they raided the kitchen for any available food, he took her out to the gardens (one of her favorite places) in hopes of calming whatever leftover anxiety she had. At the moment, they sat in the middle of an elaborate ring of colorful roses gazing at the disappearing whisps of sunlight. Rapunzel was laying on his lap focused on the flower chain she started on the walk. He smiled down at her and combed a hand through her hair. The scene was peacefully silent, the only sound coming from the occasional crickets waking up. 

Of course that was the exact moment one of the guards had to run up to them because they couldn't have nice things. Eugene groaned and looked at the man expectantly. Rapunzel didn't bother moving from her position though, choosing to glance at the newcomer and look back at the crown in her hand.

"Can I help you?"

The guard took a moment to catch his breath before standing up straight. 

"There is a wall on the east side of the castle that had crumbled. We request some help on how to rebuild and what to do in the meantime, sir."

The moment was ruined by a wall. Why wouldn't it be?

He sighed and moved to help Rapunzel sit up. "Ok, lead me there. You wanna join Blondie?"

Nodding, she scooped up Pascal and her flower crown. They walked towards the wall at fault silently. It turned out that the crumbled wall was basically a just massive hole formed by corrosion. Nothing too serious. Nothing he should have been called for. 

"Is this all?" The guards surrounding the area nodded as he sighed again. "So why exactly am I here?"

They all looked between each other until one man cleared his throat. "Well Captain, because it's direct back access to the castle we thought you should be aware of it. And we don't really...know what to do..." 

"And you're all incapable of coming up with a temporary solution?"

Rapunzel elbowed his side and gave him a look. 

"We thought you should be informed..." 

After taking a moment to make sure he wasn't going to yell at any of his men, Eugene surveyed the damage. It wasn't too bad, maybe a 3 day fix at most. He quickly gave orders to board up the area until they could start the rebuilding process. Once a few of the men ran to grab supplies, he grabbed Rapunzel's hand and pulled her away towards the castle. Their garden moment might have been ruined but they still had some downtime to relax. By the time they had reached Rapunzel's room, the sun was already far past the horizon. Instead, the sky was illuminated only by the white moonlight that was currently pouring into the room. 

They collapsed onto the bed with a huff, Rapunzel quickly clinging onto Eugene's side and curling in close. He laughed and pulled her close.

"Are we sleeping now?"

"Hm, yes."

It didn't take long for the two of them to do just that, Rapunzel falling asleep almost immediately. Eugene followed not much long after. 

-3 am-

Waking up with a splitting headache was not something he was hoping to do that night. This was the exact opposite of what Eugene wanted. Yet here he was, sitting off the side of the bed trying to diminish the random sharp pains that had decided to wake him up in the middle of the night. As the pain increased there was the fleeting thought of the weird thing going around. Before he had a chance to properly question if he was indeed experiencing the same thing that Rapunzel and the king had an intense wave of pain made him crash to the floor gasping. It felt like he was being stabbed over and over again without so much as a pause to breathe. His vision started to fade in and out as the pain got worse. 

A soft hand was on his shoulder, gently trying to shake him. The movement only made the headache worse and he groaned. Whoever had grabbed him pulled away their hand and apparently tried shouting instead. Eugene barely registered his name being yelled as the headache started to diminish. When it finally went own to a dull throbbing, he opened his eyes to look at the person shouting. Though it took a moment for his vision to clear, he recognized them immediately. 

Rapunzel was currently sitting on the floor next to him, eyes wide. She shuffled to a crouching position and cradled his head in her hands. 

"-you okay? Eugene?" He blinked before offering a slight smile, albeit forced but something at least. 

"Hey Sunshine." 

"Oh thank god you're ok! You fell off and you were on the floor grabbing the..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at the floor. "Eugene are you seeing anything? Or hearing voices?"

"What? No I'm-" 

Another figure made they're way into his vision as his sentence was cut short. Just past Rapunzel's head was another person, a woman from what he could see. It took a second for his eyes to adjust again but when they did the woman became much more clear. Standing about four feet away was black eyed Stalyan, bag of riches over her shoulder and all. 

"Yeah _Eugene_ , seeing anything?" 

It didn't take him long to connect some dots but it definetly didn't improve his situation once he did. Which is why instead of responding to his fiancee or the hallucination, Eugene sat there wide-eyed staring past Rapunzel. She glanced at him before slowly turning around to follow his gaze. Of course, she didn't see anything but it wasn't hard to guess there was someone standing there in his mind. Before he got a chance to attempt to say anything, both women cut him off. 

"Whatever you see Eugene, it isn't real. I'm right here ok?" Rapunzel said.

"Glad to see you're still kicking Ryder." The hallucination of Stalyan spoke at the same time as Rapunzel, making it difficult for Eugene to make out what either of them said in his hazy state. Sharp pain started to stab at his head again. If either of the women in front of him said anything, it went unnoticed as he groaned and doubled over. The soft whispers of voices he had been expecting began to sound out all around him. Though most were undeciferable the main message was clear. _He didn't deserve her_. He didn't deserve Rapunzel, not after everything. Not after all that's happened and all he's done. Distantly, Eugene recognized the soft touches and reassurances of his fiancee but he didn't do anything about it. Instead he focused on the ache that was spreading over his body in waves. Some part of his mind was reminding him what was going on and that Rapunzel had also gone through this. If he was honest though, that didn't exactly help comfort him in any way. In fact it actually made him feel worse. 

The pain started to slowly fade and allowed him to breathe. While the whispers didn't go away at all, Eugene was still able to hear Rapunzel's over them all. Her voice gave him a slight feeling of comfort; Stalyan's voice in the background doing the exact opposite however. They continued to speak over one another making understanding them impossible. Add some weird inner voices to the mix and you have a slight sensory overload. Just what he needed. 

"Stop please." He put his head in his hands again. Almost instantly, two of the voices stopped. 

A few seconds passed with relative silence before a delicate voice sounded out. Though it made him flinch slightly, it was much more welcome than the fading whispers in his head.

"Eugene? What can I do?" 

Of course she asked that. He really didn't deserve her, did he? They had gone through so much together and she never left his side. Not when he almost married his ex, not when he locked her out of the Dark Kingdom, not when he let her down time and time again, she never left. He owed her so much and yet **she** was the one asking what she could do. 

"Why? Why do you do this?" His voice came out in a rasped whisper, making Eugene want to roll his eyes. 

"I...what do you mean?" 

He really didn't want to explain this to her. 

"Why are you still here, with me?" 

Rapunzel hesitated to respond, which of course gave him the wrong impression. His gaze fell back onto the woman standing a few feet away. She looked at the two with disinterest and digust, only changing her expression once she noticed Eugene looking at her. Before she was able to make a remark, his fiancee cradled his face in her hands again and smiled. "Stalyan" glared are her but didn't say anything. 

"Because you're my dream Eugene, you'll always be." 

It took a moment for him to stop mentally lagging but when he did he broke out into the stupidest smile. Pulling her forward, he kissed her softly. As they kissed, the voices stopped completely as well as the slight headache. The only thing that stayed when they pulled apart was the fading hallucination of his ex. It quickly disappeared like everything else when Rapunzel kissed his forehead lightly and moved to help him stand. They climbed back into the bed silently and pulled each other close. Eugene smiled as she wrapped her arm around his torso. Neither said a word about the events of the night and instead decided to fall back into a blissful sleep. It was only as he was fading out of consciousness did he notice that everything had gone back to quiet and there was no hallucination standing a few feet away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you haven't noticed, each of the people who are appearing for the characters are the embodiment of their guilt. For Raps it was Cassandra as a representation as how she still holds everything she did to her friends against herself. For Eugene it was Stalyan representing his past life and everything he did then. 
> 
> You'll see who the next few are :)


	3. Lance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get ready for the DRAAAMAAAA
> 
> It only gets worse from here :)

_Well that was just pathetic. It had gotten maybe an hour's worth of energy from that man before being forcibly kicked from his mind. Going into his mind was a bad idea in the first place but the creature was getting desperate. Granted it should have known better than to invade a human's mind when their support system was right next to them. None of this was the being's fault though, understanding the human psyche was a lot more frustrating than one would expect. One moment they're crippled in self-loathing and guilt, the only thing it was looking for, and the next they're smiling and resting peacefully. For spending a majority of its time in human minds, the creature didn't understand any of what was going through their heads._

_Maybe it would never understand. After all, it didn't need to understand, no matter how much it yearned to. It was put upon this kingdom to feed off the humans' guilt, and that's what it planned to do. Even with its recent mistakes, it would do its job. There was bound to be someone remorseful enough to keep the being going. It just had to find that person, easier said than one._

_So it set off on its search, glaring at the couple laying on the bed behind it. The girl had been more useful but together, they were useless. Then again, most of the people in this castle were. The castle...Of course. How could it have been so stupid? It had expected these nobles to have more guilt than the peasants below but of course they don't. Just like the king, they were all too focused on their own lives they negated who their decisions affected. The only exception to this was the girl, though even she was only focused on her friends rather than her subjects. Chances were that the common folk were the being's only chance, so that's where it would go._

  
Lance

Lance had already heard of the weird sickness going around. It infected both the king and the princess, of course he heard of it. The details were vague but almost everyone in the kingdom had heard of the random pain and wild hallucinations passing around. According to the rumors, it had already left the castle and was moving towards the surrounding villages. Which is why when Lance unexpectedly saw Kiera and Catalina glaring at him, both with pitch-black eyes, when he had watched them leave for Old Corona not even an hour ago, he decided a trip to the castle was warranted. Now he wasn't exactly the brightest person but it wasn't hard to deduce why he was seeing the two girls looking possessed. Especially after going to bed with an extreme headache. Overall it was probably best to just ask Rapunzel and Eugene for help. 

He quickly found the girls and made sure they were ok (and not possessed) before leaving them at the treehouse. One of the villagers had kindly offered to watch over them while he made the trip, though that didn't improve any slight anxiety Lance had about leaving them behind. After some convincing from both the girls and the woman who volunteered, he finally left. On the journey, he couldn't get the hallucination out of his head. Of course it was hard to forget something when there are voices whispering in his head constantly reminding him of what he saw. While it had disappeared after some time, it was still vivid in his mind. 

After the pain had stopped that morning, Lance had opened his eyes to see his daughters standing at the doorway, anger evident on their faces. It was unsettling but what threw him off the most was that not only were their eyes different but so were they. Instead of the outdoor fun outfits they chose for themselves a few months back, they wore simple clothes similar to what you would expect children at orphanges to wear. As well as the strange outfits, they also appeared to be two years younger, the exact ages he met them at. Lance didn't have any idea why the hallucination would change them so much but that was the least of his concerns at the moment. 

The hallucinations at first refused to speak to him, in fact they barely moved at all. Right before the headache returned though, the girls' expressions changed. They no longer wore a look of pure disdain, instead they both had tears streaming down their faces. His immediate reaction was to try and comfort them but was stopped by them finally speaking. 

" _Why did you leave us?_ "

That was enough for Lance to figure out what was happening. The voices and sudden guilt helped confirm his theory. So he decided to head to the castle in search of some help or answers, either would work for the time being. 

Surprisingly, the hallucinations didn't show up again, though the slight pain was definitely there. Had it not been for horse he borrowed, Lance probably wouldn't have been able to make the trip. The jostling made his head hurt significantly more but it was nothing he couldn't handle, if anything it was just on the edge of mildly uncomfortable and painful. Still didn't make the ride there any more enjoyable. Thankfully it was a short one, Lance arriving only an hour or so later. 

The streets were bustling with people like always, the store fronts open and filled with the usual customers. It wasn't hard to navigate through the people since most cleared out of his way with a smile. Though the aggravating pain made it difficult to return any sentiments sent his way, Lance did his best to stay polite. Lucky enough for him, Rapunzle and Eugene were amongst the crowd. He quickly made his way over to them.

Eugene noticed him walking over first with Rapunzel quickly following after. 

"Lance, hi! How've you been?" She gave her usual bright smile as she turned to face him. "How are Keira and Cataline?"

Lance went to reply but sighed instead. "I need your help, and the girls are fine don't worry." 

The couple shared a look of concern and Eugene quickly pulled him out of the way. They walked towards one of the tables across from Attila's bakery and sat down. It took a moment for Lance to find the right words to describe what happened but eventually settled for saying it flat out. No harm in blatant truth right?

"That thing going around, Princess did you find out what it was?" 

Rapunzel looked taken aback before frowning. 

"No, I didn't. We haven't been able to figure out what caused it. Why do you ask?"

"Let me guess, one of the girls has it," Eugene cut in. 

He shook his head. "They're fine. But I think I have it..." 

The looks of surprise that got what about what he expected. 

"Are...are you seeing the visions? Or the voices?"

Nodding, he let Rapinzel continue.

"Ok. Are you ok?"

"I've been better but I'm alright, most of the pain went away." 

"I'm glad." She cast a look to Eugene before sighing and leaning against the chair. "What should we do? We can't keep letting this pass through the kingdom and our friends."

The three sat in silence, all deep in thought. Coming up with a solution for an unknown problem was difficult to say the least. While each of them had experienced the same thing, the weird event didn't give them much information to work with. It could have started from anywhere, whether from an actual sickness or some form of magic. The latter would actually make more sense given the past events that had happened to the group. 

Eugene slammed his hand on the table and grinning, startling both of them. 

"I have an idea!" The other two looked at him expectantly so he finished. "We should ask someone for help!" 

Rapunzel and Lance stared at him, successfully killing the confidence he had seconds ago. His smile slowly faded as they looked away and kept thinking. Time continued to pass as they thought, spittballing ideas here and there only to shut them down. It seemed impossible to find an actual answer to the issue they had. Maybe asking someone was a good idea. What did they have to lose anyway?

"I think we should ask someone."

"Yes thank you for repeating my exact idea Lance." 

Rapunzel rolled her eyes, "You're both right. Someone has to know something about this."

"And I know exactly who to ask."

-At Xavier's workshop-

"I have heard of such a thing before. It is a very unknown tale but luckily I am familiar with its origin. What you three are describing is rare curse put upon a kingdom by someone with a hate-filled heart. Whoever did this had a goal to reign guilt on Corona. Just like the create of this curse had intended. Years ago when it was designed, the maker decided to break havok on a small kingdom far from here, his motives were unknown however. Because of his-"

Eugene quietly groaned and slumped against the wall, Lance following in suit. They had gone to ask the old blacksmith about the situation in case he knew anything which he apparently did. This of course meant the three of them would get a backstory to the newfound curse, the **entire** background. The two men were currently hald-asleep while Rapunzel listened with forced enthusiasm. She had refrained from cutting Xavier off in case there was any valuable information they could use against the curse but sadly they han't gotten to that part of the story yet. 

Eventually, they couldn't take it anymore. 

"Ok, is there a way to fix it?!"

Xavier simply turned his gaze to Eugene and nodded. "There is. A ritual must be preformed on the one who holds the curse, and since we have him here it can be done now. I will go gather supplies, you all get relaxed."

They looked around as he left. In all honesty, Lance was pretty nervous about the "ritual". It might have been how Xavier worded it but he was not exactly looking forward to whatever was going to happen. The currse was also hundreds of years old so a lot could change or go wrong in that time. Rapunzel must have noticed his discomfort because she quietly walked over and put a hand on his shoulder, smiling at him again. 

"It's going to be ok Lance, we'll get the curse figured out. Don't worry." 

He offered a nervous smile in return. Eugene patted his back and moved towards the large amounts of tools lining the walls and shelves. The blacksmith walked back into the room, now holding a armfull of different supplies. After setting it down, he motioned for the three to come closer. They examined the pile of books and random trinkets none of them knew the use of. 

"Now we don't need much space but it might be better to clear an area as to avoid any accidents. Please form a circle around the cursed and repeated these words when I say." 

Xavier handed out small pieces of parchment with the words written on them. All of them quickly did as told and stood, Lance nervously shifting in the middle of the group. 

"Begin." 

They all started reading the lines, slowly becoming more in sync with each word. The distant throbbing in his head started to increase into a sharp pain. He groaned and held his head as the others continued to recite the passage, slightly wincing at the obvious pain it was causing their friend. As the pain started to ease up slightly, a final stab shot through his head. They said the last word as Lance yelled and collapsed onto one knee. The sudden energy in the room dissipated and Rapunzel and Eugene ran to his side. Xavier pulled out a small canteen and handed it to Lance, who took it gratefully. 

A few seconds passed before he was able to stand again. 

"You ok bud?" He nodded and leaned against the wall. 

Rapunzel turned to Xavier and smiled, "Thank you for your help Xavier."

"My pleasure, you should all get some rest. The magic can drain each of you in different ways."

"Will do." The three walked out of the shop and towards the castle, oblivious to the being hovering above them. 

* * *

_It glared at the humans. Did they honestly believe it would leave that easily? That a few fancy words would ban it? The situation would be laughable if it wasn't so damn frustrating. That scripture was years old and basically useless against the magic that had put the creature here. The words were outdated and useless. Plus, those runes only banned the being from **one** person, everyone else was still fair game. It was only unable to go into the taller man's mind, that didn't stop it from being able to go into anyone else's mind. Besides, there was nothing to gain from any of those threes minds. They had each been a last resort until it found something permanent. Which it still had not. _

_Frustrated, the creature turned to leave, giving one last final glare at the blacksmith. Back to square one, all because of those foolish humans. It passed the shops and crowds trying to sense any small bit of guilt but there still seemed to be none. It couldn't stay this way for long, the searching drained it and weakened its magic._ _The lack of guilt continued as it left the island. As if things couldn't get more difficult, the being was trapped in this kingdom. The option of leaving in search of more guilty humans wasn't even an option! The creature's hate for its creator was gradually rising. There were to many terms to this, how could it feed off and harvest guilt from people if there was no guilt around? While it didn't doubt the genius of its maker, it was slowly questioning the amount of common sense they possessed._

_The magic was starting to fade from the being as it made its way past treelines and small villages. None of the people here had anything worth while either. It was starting to get desperate. If the magic completely disappeared the curse could be lost forever and the purpose wouldn't ever be filled._

_Finally, as the being started to slow down and feel itself dissipate, a strong scent caught its attention. The smell began to get stronger as it flew through the air in the direction of it. Eventually the scent became almost overbearing. What was it going to find? Curiostity and hunger rose in the creature. A wide grin formed on its face._

_This would be good._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if you guys actually care lol but the thing that Kiera and Cataline (or the hallucination version) were representing was Lance's guilt for leaving behind all of the other kids he knew at the orphanage. While it took me FOREVER to come up with something I kinda guessed that as a dad, Lance would feel bad thinking about the kids who aren't as fortunate as him and his new family. 
> 
> I know it's a low quality idea but I tried. Thanks for reading!


	4. Varian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lateness my guys, school's a bitch.
> 
> Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for. Varian angst :)

_To say that the being was surprised to see a literal child at the end of the trail would be an understatement. It expected a warrior or fighter with blood on their hands but no. Instead, there was a boy, no older than 16. The amount of guilt the being was detecting was staggering, especially considering who it belonged to. Depending on how it plays its cards, this human could last for days, maybe weeks. Still, it was so baffled at the sheer mass of fuel it could gain from a child. What had he done? How could this boy have more guilt than every human in this kingdom? More importantly, how useful was he to the creature?_

_It curiously circled the child, hesitating to invade his mind. The boy seemed innocent enough seeing as he wasn't currently on a murder spree to warrant such guilt but there was always more to the story. If he was anything like the other humans the being had inhibited, then that story would be easy to uncover. This was all very confusing though. The guilt surrounding the boy was much too strong for it to miss, so why had it not sensed the guilt earlier on?_

_The question was quickly answered when the scent of remorse vanished for a moment. He was pushing the guilt aside, how interesting. The child seemed much more efficient at moving emotions to the side. With a little persuasion, that will change. All the creature needs to do is to let a little bit of pressure off the bottle. Loosen the emotions and soon they will come flooding out, no matter how good someone is at hiding them. From the looks of it too, this guilt was just waiting for the right moment. Which was just **perfect**. How the being went so long without finding this boy was lost upon it. But, as they say, one must seize the opportunities given. And that was exactly what it planned on doing. _

_A twisted smile formed on its face. This time, without hesitation, it crept into the child's mind, and looked around. The story was swiftly unraveling._

**Varian**

There were a lot of things that made today a good day. From the moment Varian woke up, things seemed to be going his way. To start, he woke up late and felt rested for once. Then when he rushed outside to get to the castle (a majority of weekends he stayed at Old Corona to help his dad out with any field work that needed to be done) his dad told him that he had a freeday. This rare free time gave Varian time to work on something he actually wanted to work on. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy being the Royal Engineer, it just got tedious sometimes. For whatever reason, the gadget he was making finally decided to work. Soon after making the invention work, he decided to visit the castle to see his friends, _not_ to do work. On the way through the village, he got multiple thank you's and compliments on the newly added harvesting machine he made. All this plus the amazing weather was more than enough to drag him out any sort of slump he woke up in. 

He didn't try to jinx his good luck, however. Every passing second Varian expected something to go wrong, whether that be he runs into a group of bandits on his way to the capital or someone telling him one of his many inventions went haywire again. So far it seemed like it would be ok though. Varian let himself relax slightly and enjoyed the serenity. Beside him, Ruddiger happily bounded along, sometimes scampering up a tree and hopping from branch to branch. It seemed like maybe this would be a nice break from his usually busy days, maybe he could finally relax. 

So he did. Pulling out the few snacks he brought for the walk, Varian walked a bit past the trail and climbed into the closest tree. There was a small creek just below him and a small meadow towards his left. The entire area just radiated tranquility and he basked in it. Ruddiger landed on his lap and grabbed the apple out of his bag. Varian smiled and leaned against the tree, dangling his legs over the branch he sat on. While he definitely was not about to fall asleep on a branch that was at least 12 feet off the ground, he still closed his eyes and let himself doze slightly. The only sound that filled his ears was the soft trickling of the water below and the sound of the forest around him. In more ways than one, this is what Varian needed. Constant workdays filled with complaints left and right from the castle staff and rare free time was slowly starting to wear down on his psyche. His friends had also been busy with their packed schedules so he wasn't able to spend much time with them. Today seemed different though. 

After 15-20 minutes of zoning out, Varian finally started eating the few things in his bag. Before he had left his dad had insisted on packing him some food for the walk, even though he told him multiple times it was unnecessary. Sitting in the tree now, however, he appreciated his dad's help. Since Ruddiger had long since finished his apple, the animal had now decided to curl up on the teen's lap and sleep. He ate in silence and did his best not to disturb his friend, though that was proving more or less difficult from the branch he chose to rest on. Even so, he successfully finished the food without waking up Ruddiger. Varian hung his bag on a nearby branch and rested against the tree again. The two of them sat listening to the calming water and birds around them. 

Eventually, he decided it was time to get back on the road. The desire to visit his friends over-rode the desire to sit in the tree and rest. Slipping the backpack on, Varian waited for the raccoon to hop onto his shoulders before starting the climb down. It didn't take long, of course, he had climbed trees like this since he was 5 so he was fine. Until his foot slipped slightly and he fell the rest of the way down. Luckily he was only two or three feet up so when he landed it didn't hurt too much. He laughed and rubbed his elbow, which was the only thing that had gotten somewhat bruised from the fall. Ruddiger chattered from his shoulder, maybe scared from falling or concerned but either way Varian pet his tail and continued towards the path. 

They walked along in silence again, still enjoying the scenes surrounding the two. About half an hour after their break, Varian started to feel a pain in the back of his head. At first, he thought he had bumped his head when he fell but then the pain started to increase. He winced and shook his head, determined to get to the castle. That was not going to happen apparently. Soon after the headache started, he felt pressure on his abdomen. When it began it was uncomfortable but it quickly escalated, making it hard to breathe. Varian stumbled and pressed a hand to his chest in an attempt to alleviate the pressure. It felt like something was crushing his chest as well as stabbing his head. The pain suddenly became overwhelming and he crashed to the ground, still gripping his chest. Distantly he recognized Ruddiger trying to distract him but he couldn't do anything to console him. 

A random wave of pain made him yelp. He slowly started to blackout, still not acknowledging his pet tapping his face. The pressure on his chest abruptly worsens and became the final push Varian needed to fall out of consciousness. The black that was once on the outskirts of his vision quickly filled his mind and he fell limp. A shrill screech sounded out right before he completely blacked out. 

-Varian's mind-

Varian groaned as he sat up. The details of what was going on were hazy. Actually, everything was hazy at the moment, including the strange environment he was in. As well as everything was dark so it was hard to make out any key features of the land. When his vision finally came back into focus he was thrown into a feeling of deja vu as he looked around. He was back at home in Old Corona but it didn't look nearly the same. The entire area was littered with the same black rocks as they had been two years ago, on the bigger rocks laid remnants of automatons-his automatons. He tore his eyes from the stabbed machines and continued to observe the other changes to his home. The border wall was destroyed, letting the rising sun start to fill the area, so was the majority of his house. Everything was painfully familiar to Varian, though the final touch was laying right in front of him. Sitting in front of the remnants of his largest automaton was a prison carriage. He knew what it was because, well, he was in it once. 

Without noticing, he was already standing and making his was towards the carriage. For once, his thoughts were completely silent as he stepped around the back and opened the door. While the memory of the trip from his home to the prisons had been a blur, every small detail came back to the boy as he walked inside. As if the small enclosure burned, Varian quickly stumbled away from it. He spun around and slammed into the side of his destroyed automaton, limbs ripped off and all. The red glow from the tinted lense stared back at him. A voice broke him from his trance, also making him jump a few feet. 

"Remember this? We were so angry at them." 

Behind him was...him. Varian was currently staring at himself, but not really. The odd reflection was indeed himself, but wearing the outfit he wore with the Saporians. Looking at it now, it looked a lot less cool than he thought it had back then. At least his sad attempt at drawing facial hair was gone, that would have made him cringe worse than the outfit did. He quickly shook himself from his off-topic thoughts and looked at his other-self. The logical side of his brain had already deduced that this was an illusion and was most likely a fever dream brought on by the pain earlier. With this knowledge in mind, Varian glared at the vision. 

Despite the look it received, it continued to talk. "Do you remember how we almost killed Cass and the queen? They could have died for Rapunzel's mistake. You could have killed them."

"Except," he said, taking a step forward, "I didn't. And they forgave me. So try again."

The other him also walked forward, picking up a piece of shrapnel on his way. 

"They also didn't hesitate to let you rot in prison. Not that you didn't deserve it though."

Varian rolled his eyes and turned away, not bothering to reply at first. Honestly, the whole ordeal was more annoying than anything. Everything this hallucination had to say was something he had heard before, either from himself or others. Even so, a sliver of guilt made its way into his mind. He quickly shoved it away and looked back at his other self with hatred. 

"Look everything is fine now. Whatever you have to say, I've heard it. Rapunzel forgives me, Eugene forgives me, Cass forgives me, even the queen forgives me. I know how much I fucked up but it's over. I've gotten over it ok? So shut up and let me wake up."

The vision had the audacity to look unimpressed. As if it didn't start this whole debate. Before he could decide against it, Varian walked back towards it and glared, a small part of him noticed that the black in its eyes was concerning big. The detail was enough to make him falter in his step but he quickly put on a look of anger again. The other took a step forward as well and they were soon face to face. 

"Yet here you are feeling just as guilty now as you did a year ago. If everything is fine, how come you're still mad at Rapunzel then?"

"I'm not mad-" 

"Really? You're not mad at her? Then why do you sometimes not regret what you did huh? You hurt her entire family and nearly killed them yet here you are getting mad at her for what, breaking a stupid promise?" 

His expression fell flat for a second. That was a new realization. It was true that sometimes he would sometimes get mad at Rapunzel, even after they reconciled all those months ago. Varian knew it was irrational but he couldn't help it. Some days he'd look at his dad and remember what happened to him and suddenly the same anger from when he was 14 was back. Usually, it didn't last long because he would quickly fall into a depressive state when remembering everything that followed that night. Those were always the bad days, no matter how rare they were most definitely there. 

"Besides couldn't you have asked for help? No, you had to commit treason and attempt to murder the royal family." The illusion pushed him and wore a glare of its own. "Made Dad real proud didn't you?"

"Dad is...he is proud of me. He told me." Even to his own ears, his voice sounded faint. The rebuttal itself was weak but he couldn't find it in himself to snap back. The familiar guilt was making its way through his mind. It suddenly became a lot harder to glare at his other-self. 

"Oh yeah because that'd be the first lie he's told you. Tell me, is anyone really proud of you? I mean you did nearly kill multiple people but hey, you know better than I do right?" 

The vision's eyes became completely black as it spoke. Varian took a few steps back and looked at it with fear. The thing continued to advance on him though, even as the teen stumbled backwards. As it moved, it started yelling at him. He fell to the ground and covered his ears. The loud voice wasn't blocked out b the action, instead it seemed to get louder as other small voices joined the cries. 

_You hurt them Varian. You let them all down._

Gasping, he tried to stop the tears from spilling onto his face, which he failed at doing of course. Sobs escaped his lips as the voices got louder and louder. Without warning, the hallucination kicked him onto his back and glared from above him. It placed one foot on his chest and pressed. His already shallow breaths quickly became more desperate as the feeling of being crushed came back. Varian threw his head back and cried out, finally meeting the pitch black eyes staring at him. Everything started to hurt again, the stabbing pain returning to his head as the voices continued their rant. 

The pain and voices seemed to peak just as they stopped. The pressure on his chest did not go away though. It actually increased as the other version leaned down and grinned.

"Do you know what you did Varian?" With a final kick to the head, Varian blacked out again. 

-Reality-

The first thing Varian noticed when he came to was the desperate chittering and slight shrieking in front of him. The second this was that Ruddiger was now licking his face. He groaned and shifted, trying to move the animal away from his face. Of course, right when he noticed the boy was awake, he leapt onto his chest and nuzzled his chin.

"Hey buddy, I'm ok." 

He lifted Ruddiger and laid him in his lap, cuddling him close. The dream he had did not go forgotten. For the moment, he decided to focus on his pet's breathing and use that to calm himself down. Varian squeezed his eyes shut and let out a sob. 

Maybe today wasn't a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was fun to write.


	5. Varian (Pt 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lateness guys. It's longer than the others so at least there's that lol
> 
> Enjoy!

_This kid was stronger than it expected. Extracting his guilt took longer than the being had thought it would. Once it did though, the reward was worth the work. Granted it never meant for the boy to fall unconscious but it made do with the situation. The change of pace proved to be very beneficial to the creature's needs. There was still more guilt to harvested as well! It was used to doing the process once and either leaving willingly or being forced from the human's minds but there was nothing to stop the being from staying in his mind. The boy didn't seem to have the strength (or willingness) to force it out so it lingered. Perhaps it was the timing of the procedure or it was simply the fact that the human was alone, save for the animal clung to his side. Whatever it was, the being was benefiting heavily from the results. It hadn't felt this powerful since it was created, even then the magic hadn't been as strong as it was now._

  
_As long as it could keep the boy's mind focused on his remorse, it could keep feeding off him. That didn't seem like a hard task to complete at the moment, seeing as he had yet to move from the ground. Briefly, it left his mind and surveyed him from above. Unsurprisingly, he was still clutching the animal and squeezing his eyes shut. The being had long since stopped the sharp pain from torturing the child but he acted as if it was still there. This confused it greatly. For being so stubbornly strong earlier, the boy seemed so broken from where he sat. Because the creature wasn't exactly able to feel any sympathy towards him, it felt curious instead._

_While it wasn't unusual for humans to have swiftly changing emotions, the transition always sparked the being's interest. The girl from before had switched rather quickly but it was nothing compared to the jarring shift that just went through the boy's mind. It almost felt pity for him, but the sudden rush of power that coursed through it quickly made any mercy that it thought to have disappear. Without a second of hesitation, it flew back into his mind. There was so much potential this child had, and it was just there for the taking. These humans may have each others' support, but when they are all alone even the bravest become cowards. After all, a hero is nothing but a coward with a crowd. Without that crowd? Doubt comes in._

**Varian**

It took a few minutes for Varian to compose himself enough to stand and attempt to continue his journey to the castle. After his impromptu hallucination and blackout session, he was starting to feel a lot less at peace. His current mood made the idea of visiting his friends a lot less enjoyable. It wasn't much of a choice though, seeing as he needed to update Rapunzel on a few changes he might need to make. This was not the state he wanted to talk to her in. Unfortunately what he wanted was irrelevant, seeing as this day decided to give him whiplash with the change of pace. So here Varian was, starting back up on his trip. 

On the walk he took his time to think about the earlier. There wasn't much to actually think about since it was all pretty linear. He had a hallucination that triggered some slight PTSD. Not much else to it. The reason why was obviously still unknown but at this point Varian was too exhausted to put energy into figuring it out. At the moment the only thing he could really do without breaking down (both mentally and physically) was focus on what he was going to talk to Rapunzel about and walk. It was probably for the best that he didn't think about what he saw in detail though. Even with the time he had to calm down, Varian was still not completely ready to face his friends. Lots of energy and enthusiasm wouldn't exactly help the headache that continued to linger. Hopefully they would be a little more mellow today. 

Nope, he was wrong. The second he arrived at the castle and had made his way towards Rapunzel's room he was basically tackled. The before-mentioned princess already started chatting excitedly in his ear, making his headache worse like he predicted. While Eugene wasn't behind her but that didn't surprise him. Varian forced a smile on as he half-listened to whatever she was saying. However, one sentence, in particular, caught his attention.

"-when Lance said he also saw the visions that's when we all went to Xaviers to ask for help. Turns out it was an old curse that was giving everyone the weird hallucinations. Xavier knew the legend of it, of course, hah, so we...Varian? You're zoning out."

Shaking his head, Varian laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah sorry, I guess I didn't get enough sleep. Um, what were you saying about hallucinations?"

She gave a sympathetic smile. 

"I was talking about how Lance had the same curse Eugene and I had. We got it all figured out though so don't worry. What are you up to today? Isn't it your free day?"

"Yep but I uh had some updates I wanted to talk to you about. Unless you're busy, then I can get started on that cooling system you had mentioned." 

Ruddiger butted his leg slightly and whined. Rapunzel quickly scooped the raccoon up and looked back at the boy. 

"I do have some paperwork I have to do but you can tell me on the way." She looped her arms around his and started walking down the hall. "Besides I could use the distraction. You would not believe how relentless these reports are, it's ridiculous."

Varian laughed. As they walked, he explained the changes he needed to make to some of the existing machines he had up and running. Eventually they made it to the room Rapunzel apparently had to do paperwork in so their conversation was cut a little short. His friend turned and pulled him into a hug. He hugged back but faltered at hearing a familiar voice in the back of his mind. 

She shouldn't have forgiven you. None of them should have.

When they pulled apart her expression quickly changed from a smile to a look of concern. Judging by the shift, Varian could only assume he wore a much different expression now than he did moments ago. The headache started to travel towards the forefronts of his mind again causing him to visibly wince. He momentarily forgot Rapunzel was still standing in front of him, only remembering when she gripped his arms tightly. The action made Varian flinch slightly so she quickly loosened her grip. It took him a while to finally meet her eyes though he wasn't shocked by how much worry he could see in them. 

"Are you ok?"

Well, that was a redundant question. 

"Uh yeah, just a headache don't worry. Nothing too bad heh, but y-yeah I'm totally fine." He smiled in an attempt to convince her. Of course, what he said wasn't entirely true but it wasn't entirely a lie either. The earlier conversation he and Rapunzel had still hadn't left his mind. In fact it was the main thing taking up most of his thought process but that wasn't his main concern at the moment. Varian still had to convince the concerned older sister currently analyzing his every move. 

"I'm fine Rapunzel."

She narrowed her eyes and sighed. "Ok, but if you need anything just find Eugene. He'll be able to help."

Nodding, he fully pulled away from the princess and moved to walk towards his lab. 

"Will do, I'm gonna...I have some work to do so...YEp! Bye Rapunzel!"

He quickly ran off without giving her the chance to reply. There were some things he needed to figure out.

**Rapunzel**

  
Varian was definitely acting off. When they were walking he seemed completely fine but the second they stopped he seemed so out of it. His headache excuse was less than believable so it wasn't hard to guess that whatever was going on he didn't want to talk about it. That didn't make her worry any less though. Whatever it was, Rapunzel would figure it out. Right after finishing up the mountains of reports she had to read over. Her concern for Varian would have to put to the side for a moment, just to let her focus on this. Then she'd find Eugene and figure out if she was going crazy or if her friend was actually upset about something. 

Pushing her worries aside, Rapunzel strode into the room and started on her work. 30 minutes in she was already prepared to ditch the unfinished work and leave. It was just as boring as she thought it would be. Rapunzel groaned and tossed her pen aside. What was the point of reading all of these reports if everything changed the next day? There wasn't anything she could do about the complaints coming her way that was her parents' job. So why was she sitting here?

Nobody had to know there was still 2/3 of the pile unread and they definitely didn't need to know she was abandoning the work to visit her fiance who should also be working at the moment. Which is why she quickly slipped out of the room and ran down the hall as quietly as she could. Eugene's office wasn't too far from hers so Rapunzel made it there in little under five minutes, though the fact that she was running probably helped. She knocked on the door and waited. When she heard his muffled 'come in' she hastily pulled the door open and jumped into the room before shutting it behind her. The momentum had made the door slam slightly, which made herself and Eugene both jump. Her fiance turned around and relaxed upon seeing her sheepish smile. 

"Hey Blondie, what are you up to?"

Rapunzel shrugged and walked over to him. "Oh nothing, just saying hi. And you?"

"Going over some plans. Some idiot decided that letting a rabid wolf terrorize the villages was a good idea, so of course, I'm the person who has to fix it." 

"Hm sounds fun." She wrapped her arms around his neck and started swaying slightly. "Poor you."

He hummed in reply and rested his hands on her hips, swaying along with her. They continued back and forth for a few minutes before Rapunzel remembered why she came to find him, besides to simply say hi. Her earlier worries came flooding back as she pulled away. Eugene frowned at her expression.

"Everything ok?"

"Not really, before you ask though I'm fine. Have you talked to Varian today?"

He leaned against the table. "Yeah, I passed the kid earlier on my way in. Why?"

"Well he was just acting really off when I saw him. Did he seem different to you?"

"I guess."

She was taken aback for a second before quickly raising an eyebrow and putting a hand on her hip. 

"You guess?" 

Eugene sighed, "What I meant was he didn't seem all that different. The kid always seems a little off, just who he is. He has a lot of bad days after everything that happened, it's no wonder he doesn't always act like a go-lucky happy kid. Sure he's gotten better at talking about things but you can't blame him for being a little drawn back. But he's always come to you Rapunzel, so if there really is something going on, you'll be the first person he'll tell."

"I'm just worried. Like you said, he doesn't really talk about anything that bothers him. I don't want it to be something serious."

"You should ask him about it then."

"Do you really think he'd tell me though?" she replied. It was true that Varian tended to talk to her over some of his other friends but that didn't mean he was completely open. 

"He might, or he might not. You just have to be there for him when he does." 

"Thanks Eugene. I'll figure it out soon."

She pulled him into a quick hug before pressing a kiss to his cheek. Wasting no time, Rapunzel started heading towards Varian's lab, still careful to avoid any staff (particularly her parents or Nigel) seeing as her earlier work was still very much not done. That was not her first priority though, right now it was time for her to be a good big sister. Varian needed it. 

**Varian**

Soon after making a beeline for his lab, the pain in Varian's head started to get worse. This time he was more prepared for it though. Quickly slamming into the door, he successfully made it into his lab in time to collapse in solitude, with the exception of Ruddiger of course. He slumped in his chair and held onto his hair. Hopefully this time he wouldn't pass out from the pain. That was not something he was hoping to explain to Rapunzel if she walks in. 

Lucky enough (well depends on the perspective) it seemed like he wouldn't black out again. Instead, the obnoxious whispers came back louder while the pain stayed the same. A voice sounded out more prominently behind him, silencing the other voices. 

_"How interesting."_

Turning around, Varian saw a dark figure floating a few feet away. The thing didn't have any limbs or facial features, in fact, it looked more like a wispy floating blob than a person. The only distinguishable feature that was on what he assumed its face was a large smile. Towards where the thing ended was black wisps lightly flowing across the ground, making the area it touched turn grey. He took a step back and shook his head slightly. This wasn't like the visions Rapunzel was talking about earlier, they never interacted with its surrounding like this nor did they take this weird form. So what was it?

 _"I've never taken this form before, how strange."_ It twirled a bit before focusing back on Varian _. "You seem different from the others."_

He quickly overcame his confusion to glare. Whatever was in front of him clearly wasn't friendly. 

"What are you?"

The thing's grin widened. _"You know what I am boy, you're smarter than that. After what you've done, you've proven to be much smarter than many seem to take you for."_

Beside him, Ruddiger started to growl. Which meant he could see the curse as well. It regarded his raccoon for a moment before turning back and drifting towards him. 

_"You are unique compared to the others I've seen. Though I'm not surprised anymore, not after actually meeting you."_ It flew behind him making him turn. " _For a child, you have had your fair share of mistakes, haven't you? Well, they weren't mistakes to you."_

Varian took a step forward, still glaring. "Cut the cryptic bullshit. Why are you going into people's minds?"

For whatever reason, it continued to circle him without answering. When it finally stopped in front of the boy, its form changed. The weird blob shape it had before shifted into more of a person-like figure. Though it still didn't have any other facial features besides a mouth, it started to look more like a human than before. Wisps still trailed behind it as the thing moved around. 

After changing, it decided to answer his question finally.

_"I feed off guilt, child. Everyone has a little but others have exceptional amounts, like you. I have to say when I sensed a large amount of guilt I did not expect someone like you but after you had your little...experience I was less shocked."_

He did really know what he was expecting the answer to be but this wasn't too far off from whatever theories he could come up with. It definitely explained why Varian was feeling random bits of guilt and the painful hallucination not long ago. The phantom pain on his chest reminded him of that. Still, it didn't explain the headaches and discomfort that was occurring often. The more he thought about the answer though, the more he questioned. 

"Wait but why did you possess Rapunzel and Eugene? They don't have anything to be guilty about." The curse's presence in his mind more or less made sense but they didn't have anything to be ashamed of anymore. Not as much as he did at least. 

_"Desperate measures. I needed the power and they were available. Don't worry though, you have more than enough guilt to last me months. Trying to kill others does that to you humans, doesn't it? Maybe not all, but definitely you."_

"Oh come on you literally bring people's worst memories back and you're calling me bad?" Varian replied. "Pretty damn hypocritical don't you think?"

_"I am serving my purpose boy. I do not try to claim any level of heroism, as you do."_

The room slowly started to darken around them but he took no notice of it. Ruddiger did, however; he started clawing at Varian's boot, no longer paying the black figure in the room any attention. 

"I've done good things! What happened is behind me, it's behind everyone. I'm a better person and you can't convince me I'm not." 

His voice was filled with anger but there was still some desperation behind it. These were things he worked hard to convince himself, it had taken a long time to realize he had earned the forgiveness that was given to him. He didn't need this curse thing to bring any bit of doubt he had up. Besides, if it was guilt this thing needed, that was the last thing Varian would give it. 

Of course that didn't exactly sit well with the creature. Finally, he was forced to notice the color draining from his surrounding as his headache began to rapidly increase in pain levels. The feeling of lava flowing through his veins began out of nowhere, causing him to fall to one knee. It felt like he was drinking liquid fire so it wasn't exactly pleasant. Distantly, Varian somewhat recognized the feeling but seeing as he was currently on the ground in severe agony it was difficult to pinpoint exactly why he recognized it. Eventually, it became overbearing and he collapsed onto the stone floor. 

A cold hand lifted his chin up and he stared at the black face in front of him. Another burst of pain made him groan and double over again. Although he didn't notice the room getting even darker Varian definitely noticed the sudden chill around him. It contrasted the searing hot pain flowing through his body unpleasantly. 

_"You are not stronger than me child. Your conscience betrays you, don't try to deny it."_

The spark of defiance in his mind died pretty quickly as he started to blackout, again. His breaths just started to slow down when a knock came from the door. All of the cold and darkness disappeared as well as the thing faded slightly, not enough to be invisible but enough to become less prominent. The headache and firey pain didn't follow the other strange effects, staying as present as ever. 

And, because this was clearly not his day, of course, it was Rapunzel at the door. 

"I know you said you were busy but I just wanted to...Varian?" She fully stepped into the room and looked around until finally seeing the teen curled up on the ground. "Varian! What happened? Are you-nope that's a no." 

His attempt to reply fell flat as another stab went through his head. Rapunzel was still saying something, probably asking him questions, but Varian still couldn't find the strength to listen. He felt her arms wrapping around his waist before she attempted to lift him up. It worked in a way. Right when he was on both feet he leaned heavily on her shoulder. Luckily Rapunzel didn't try to walk yet, instead choosing to let him get used to the feeling of standing. Which was very helpful seeing as the blood rushing to his feet only worsened his raging headache. She turned slowly and shifted him into a hug. The moment she did the lava feeling dissipated as well as the headache. As he tried to catch his breath Varian finally started to hear everything she was saying. 

"It's ok. I'm here, I'm not leaving. You didn't do anything wrong." 

The comforting words were a far cry from the earlier whispers. Which is probably why he started to tear up upon hearing them. with what little strength he had, Varian hugged her back and tucked his face into her shoulder. 

Rapunzel laughed lightly. "Feeling better at all?"

He nodded and squeezed tighter, not wanting to let go yet. After a few minutes, he did though. 

"I- uh...thank you, Rapunzel."

She smiled at him. 

"Any time. I'm glad you're ok now. " Her expression darkened a bit and her smile dropped. "But we have to get rid of this. I thought it was gone, but now it's back."

Varian shifted uncomfortably, he really hadn't wanted her to find out he had the curse. She didn't need to be worrying about him right now. Too late for that though. There was no convincing Rapunzel to drop something like this, it just wouldn't happen. Besides, a part of him did want to fix this even with most of his brain feeling like he didn't deserve it. 

The curse finally decided to remind the teen of its presence with a stab of pain to his chest. He groaned and stumbled away from his friend, hitting a table on his way. Rapunzel rushed over and stopped him from falling over again. Without another word, she scooped Varian up bridal-style and made her way towards the door. Ruddiger followed the two, only pausing to glare at the empty space behind them. The creature may have made itself invisible to other people but that didn't mean the raccoon didn't know where it was at the moment. 

Right now the three of them had more immediate issues to deal with. 

**Rapunzel**

When Rapunzel had walked into Varian's lab and seen him on the ground in pain, she knew exactly what was going on. Getting over the initial shock of _how_ that stupid curse could be back was easy. It was only after she brought Varian to his room (while the medic was her first thought, she quickly remembered that there was nothing they could do to help) did she questioning what happened. Clearly the spell they had used on Lance didn't actually banish the curse and only succeeded in getting it out of his mind. Which meant it was still around, and more importantly, in Varian's mind. 

Time to go back to Xavier's then. 

-Xavier's workshop-

Deciding not to bother Eugene, she went alone. Lucky enough for her, Xavier was indeed there and seemed to be on a break. She jogged over and waved at him. 

"Hi Xavier!"

"Good afternoon princess. What brings you here?" 

Rapunzel took a deep breath and started explaining everything to him. It was difficult to give him all the details as she didn't know all of them but she did the best she could. He seemed unsurprised by the time she had finished talking. That was probably because he had wanted them about the possibility of the spell not working. But at the moment, she was more interested in how to fix it now. 

"So is there anything we could do? To banish the curse completely? Maybe an updated version of that spell or something?" 

Xavier hesitated a moment before walking towards the bookshelf in the back of the shop. After selecting one of the books, he walked back over and held it out to her. 

"All the knowledge you might need will be here. While I cannot give you a solution princess, this may be your best option." 

She took the book and smiled. "Thank you, I'll return the book as soon as I can." Rapunzel turned away and made her way back to the castle. It looked like she would have to bother Eugene after all. 

-Back at the castle-

As much as she wanted to let him rest, she had to grab Varian from his room first. Though it looked like it was for the best seeing as when she walked into his room he was doubled over in the same position as before. The room had an odd chill to it as she ran over to her friend. 

"Varian, can you look at me? It's ok you're going to be alright. Don't listen to whatever the thing is saying ok? I'm right here." He gasped and curled further into himself. That was the opposite effect she was hoping for but she couldn't blame him. Rapunzel looked around the room for something that could get Varian out of this state. Her gaze fell on the large blanket draped across his bed. She quickly picked it up and laid it over his shoulders before crouching down in front of him and taking his hands in her own. The weight of the blanket seemed to have done the trick as Varian slowly started breathing more evenly, though his features had pain written all of them. 

10 minutes passed before he was finally able to meet her eyes. The small tear streaks running down his face broke her heart. Rapunzel knew first-hand how bad that curse was and what it could do, and as if it hadn't hurt enough already watching Eugene go through it, watching her little brother go through the same thing hurt so much.

He wiped his face and looked away. "I'm sorry." The room was quiet enough for her to hear what he said but that didn't mean she didn't have to strain to hear it. 

"Don't apologize. Everything is fine, you haven't done anything wrong." She squeezed his hands to emphasize her words. "It's ok now."

Before he could object, Rapunzel pulled him forward and wrapped her arms around him. There were so many things she wanted to say to comfort him but she chose to hug him tighter instead. That seemed to be the better decision judging by how Varian immediately hid his face and hugged back. The strange chill around them started to recede and she smiled, knowing it must be leaving him alone for now. A minute passed before she leaned back to meet his eyes. Rapunzel gave him a soft smile and stood up, pulling him along. 

"We're gonna fix this ok? We'll get rid of this together." 

Varian nodded. They walked out of the room together and made their way to find Eugene. It didn't take long to find him, seeing as he was in the same place as before. She pulled Varian along and opened his office door. 

"Eugene!"

He turned around and stood, smiling at the pair. "Hey Sunshine and Goggles, what are you two up to?"

They both walked over to him, Varian leaned against the older man. Eugene laughed and hugged him, pressing a quick kiss to Rapunzel's forehead as well. She grabbed the book from her bag and looked at the others, face suddenly serious.

"Eugene, we need some help." She waited until he nodded to continue. "To make a long story short, that curse is back and we need to ban it again. Well, not really again, just ban it in general."

It took a moment for him to connect the dots. When he did his face turned a range of emotions before quickly pulling Varian closer with a look of slight anger. Rapunzel started to look through the book in search of anything that could give them a leg up over this curse. So far there was nothing other than what they already knew. Although it didn't give anymore details on the curse, it gave some other useful information on overall curses. Because it was a rare one, none of the other curses were similar enough to tweak the spells but a few of them gave good tips. Maybe if she updated the wording or switched up a few verses the other spell could work. She would make it work. 

"Guys, I have an idea." Rapunzel smiled at them. 

The three of them quickly made their way out of the castle, Rapunzel still dragging Varian along as they went. They pushed the front door open and looked out on the wide balcony overlooking the courtyard. Though it was too high up to see any of the people, she still knew the streets before were busy with life. Which meant this had to work, now. 

"Ok, Varian I need you to stand in front of us. If this works right then it'll banish the curse thing out of Corona for good. And out of your mind Varian. "

The teen moved, after convincing Ruddiger to stay with the other two of course. 

"Ready?"

"Yeah, I guess." He replied. "Is this gonna hurt though?"

Eugene shrugged, which clearly didn't settle any of Varian's nervousness. 

"Eh it'll be over fast don't worry." 

"How comforting."

She winced and gave him an apologetic look. It was probably better to get this over with now though. Sighing, she lifted the book up and looked over the words. On the walk over she had scribbled down a few changes so she didn't have to do it now. Only thing to do now was to try it out. 

"Here we go."

_"Last of hope and last of fears, push away the blinding guilt._

_I am more than hurt, I am more than harm._

_This is not just me, there is so much more._

_I can be better, I will be better._

_You do not define me."_

At some point through the spell Varian had collapsed. Before she go the chance to run over to him, everything turned black. The entire courtyard was gone, so was the castle doors. The only thing she could see was Eugene and Varian, one of whom was still on the ground. Rapunzel broke through her confusion to slide next to her friend, Eugene quickly following. He groaned and shook his head, seemingly coming out of his own haze. 

"Are you ok?"

"Yep just...give me a second." She laughed and relaxed slightly. Now that she knew her friend was at least feeling a little better, she could start focusing on their surroundings, or lack there of. 

The entire space was still pitch black, only now the chill started to come back. It was moments like this Rapunzel wished she still had 70 feet of glowing hair; it would probably be pretty useful right now. But, given the circumstances, wishing for something wasn't going to fix the problem at hand. So instead she kept one hand on Varian's shoulder and stood, trying to get a good look for anything besides black. A slight movement to her left caught her attention. Turning, Rapunzel saw a silhouette, somehow even darker than the black surrounding them, slowly approaching. A feeling of familiarity quickly helped her identify what it was. 

She glared at it and stood defensively in front of the two boys. The action finally caught their attention and they soon saw the form coming closer to them. Eugene also moved himself in front of Varian slightly, keeping him farthest from the thing. When it was finally about a foot away from Rapunzel, she spoke. 

"You're done here. You have no place in my kingdom anymore. Leave." 

It frowned and bared its teeth. Even though she couldn't see any eyes, it was clear the curse was returning her look. The curse floated around her, pausing to look at the other two for a moment. Eventually it settled for hovering to her right where it could see all three of them. 

_"This was a mistake. Banishing me won't change what is coming Princess."_

Varian reached up and grabbed her hand. She sent him a soft look before scowling at the being in front of her. 

"I don't care what it solves. As long as you are gone, we're safe."

It laughed harshly. _"Do you honestly believe that? My creator has a vendetta and they will not stop until it is met. You are foolish for thinking that I will simply leave. Others will come in my place, and they will be worse than you think."_

"Buddy, she took on a demon. You aren't all that scary in comparison." Eugene said. 

The thing simply swooped over to where he sat and circled him. 

_"I was never here for fear. I was here for guilt, and all of you gave it to me. You are all susceptible to their curses. Especially him."_ It turned to Varian, who glared right back at it. 

Rapunzel moved to be back in front of them in attempt to divert its attention. Her plan worked as the curse moved back up to her eye level. 

"Whatever they send, we will send it right back. Don't think for a second that your 'creator' can do anything to bring us down. And don't you dare think I won't do everything in my power to make all of you leave." 

The darkness around them started to fade, as well as the being in front of her. She gripped Varian's hand tightly and stared the thing down. As the courtyard started to become more and more visible she smiled. They won this round and there was nothing this damned curse could do to change that. 

_"No matter what you humans do, you cannot deny your nature. More will come, and more will win."_ The last thing to fade was the being's slight grin. Once it did, all of them let out a collective sigh of relief. Rapunzel turned and helped both of her boys up. 

"Well, I could go for a nap right about now. You two up for one."

Varian groaned and nodded, leaning into Eugene's side again. She let out a laugh and walked alongside them into the castle. They would probably all sleep for the rest of the day. Without nightmares and visions plaguing them, a deep sleep sounded really nice. 

For once, the castle halls were silent. No longer buzzing with energy, just serenity. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween everyone. Thank you for reading all the way through, y'all are the best :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys for reading! I have no idea when my brain will go into a creative haze but I will hopefully finish this soon (and get started on the other story again). 
> 
> Stay safe everyone!


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